Xan Fielding

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Xan Fielding, born Alexander Wallace Fielding (26 November 1918 - 19 August 1991), was a British writer and translator. He was notable for his English translations of Planet of the Apes and The Bridge on the River Kwai.

A British SOE (Special Operations Executive) agent in World War II, Fielding was captured in France by the Gestapo together with Francis Cammaerts and a French officer, Christian Sorensen, while travelling from Apt to Seyes. The three men were, however, soon freed and thus saved from imminent execution by the remarkable intercession of the Polish SOE agent, Krystyna Skarbek.

Fielding later married "Magouche," widow of Armenian artist Arshile Gorky. Fielding had previously been married to Lady Daphne, a most unusual British aristocrat — (pretty crazy with the LSD scene) and was great friends with the poet and novelist, Lawrence Durrell.

He was also a close friend of Patrick Leigh Fermor. Several of Fermor's travelogues begin with a letter addressed to Fielding.

[edit] Works

• The Stronghold: an Account of the Four Seasons in the White Mountains of Crete (1953).
• Hide and Seek (1954)—wartime memoirs.
• Corsair Country (1959).
• Money Spinner: Monte Carlo and Its Fabled Casino (1977).
• Best of Friends: the Brenan-Partridge Letters (editor, 1986).
• One Man in His Time - The life of Lieutenant-Colonel N.L.D. ('Billy') McLean, DSO (1990).
• Aeolus Displayed (1991).
• Images of Spain (1991).
• Hideous Disguise (1994).